When it comes to shopping, I’m positively insatiable when it comes to three things: kitchenware, cookbooks, and oh yes, kitchenware. So you can imagine my glee when my sister in law, Yappi, takes us to Kappabashi Dori, Tokyo’s main wholesale district for the restaurant industry, aka: one long street exclusively devoted to kitchenware. Incredible! While this might seem like a most unexciting activity for some, there’s plenty to see even if one isn’t into plates and things.

The area is easily recognizable by the colossal 39-foot chef’s head that looms above the Niimi building. Directly across the street on the opposite building are four pairs of cups and saucers stacked vertically. This is definitely the right place!

mooncake molds?

Stores in Kappabashi are either specialized (selling one type or category of thing) or a general collection of things. I clutch my bag close while admiring exquisite hand-painted Japanese bowls and tableware; sigh while caressing a genuine ceramic Japanese knife; ogle all manner of cookie cutters, okonomiyaki grills, and amazingly, molds to (I assume) make mooncakes in. I gawp at cauldrons deep enough to hide a small child, whisks large and scary enough to brandish as weapons, stare in wonder at a rice scooper that’s as tall as Boo, and examine foot-long cooking chopsticks. I fall in love with a teapot that just begs to be bought, a beautiful fire engine-red thing and the stuff of my hot beverage drinking dreams. But at Â¥13,000 (P7,500), those dreams don’t come cheap. I actually come back to Kappabashi again (via the scary subway) before leaving Japan, intent on buying the teapot but settle for a much cheaper model. Ayyy! If I bought the pot I truly wanted, I’d have to make myself countless cups of tea to justify that purchase.

chochin, Japanese lanterns that adorn izakayas, restaurants-cum-bars

I can just about reach in and eat

I squeal in delight when I come upon stores selling plastic models of every imaginable foodstuff from sushi to loaves of bread to complete bento meals. These models are surprisingly expensive ”“ a simple salmon nigiri “sushi” is Â¥500, or roughly P250; a “bowl” of ramen can cost as much as Â¥7000 (P3500). I briefly consider buying even a small plastic food model as a souvenir, but for what? At that price, I might as well eat the damn thing! Cool to look at though. And I can’t get over how real they all look. Maybe that’s why they’re so expensive.

Japan’s 5th Avenue

Ginza on a weekend ”“ no cars allowed

Everybody knows Ginza, Tokyo’s fanciest district: the apotheosis of Japanese extravagance where people dressed in designer from head to toe come to shop and where more ordinary mortals simply come to dream and engage in Ginbura (Ginza strolling). The wide streets are ideal for window-shopping (practically the only thing most people can do here at these prices!), especially on weekends when cars are banned from the main street and cafés spill out onto the road. Packed into eight blocks are over 10,000 shops most of which are selling merchandise with a price tag equal to that of a small country’s GNP. In a Gucci store, I watch as a white-gloved salesman escorts a female customer to the door before handing over her purchase. The delighted lady casually slips the bag over her shoulder and walks away pushing her kid’s stroller. Imagine: lady, baby, and Gucci. The stuff of designer-label dreams.

building with the clocktower is Wako, a building famous for its window displays

All the brand giants are here from Bulgari to Mikimoto. All this flashy competition has led to commissioning architects to fashion storefronts with spectacular facades. Watch maker Mont Blanc has a see-through glass elevator that customers can use to access the building’s other levels, although ordinary tourists like me use it to have a gander at the view. Heehee.

Mont Blanc building on Ginza

upscale department store Matsuya Ginza

I’m lucky to come back to Ginza at night when the entire area is crammed with people and the neon lights are ablaze in their fiery glory. This is the pulsing, vibrant Tokyo that is so legendary.

Underground where the treats abound

Mariage Freres tea

It’s at the basement level of large department stores where Japan’s food lovers congregate. This is the place to witness, smell, and experience the culinary wealth and diversity that is Japan. Called depachika (department store basement), this is where the finest sushi, tea and coffee, sake, bento boxed meals, Japanese confectionery, and celestial pastries are to be had. Shops and stalls are grouped according to product so sushi gives way to katsudon, yakitori (grilled meat on skewers), coffee, chocolates, breads, and pastries. It’s tantalizing and terrifying all at once just because of the sheer amount of choice. Most depachikas go on sale near 8:00pm which is closing time so the madness multiplies. Because seeing is believing, I’ll let my photos do the talking. Believe me, Japan is a fabulous place for a food lover like me to be.

Ahh, Ginza. I was “forced” into that neighborhood many times; first to go there once a week as I tried to get the Apple Store to fix my laptop for free, then later we got to sample the nightlife after the trains stopped running. The place is beautiful, and dizzyingly expensive.

I’m pretty sure I’ve been to the department store in your photos! How fun!

Ginza by the way means “Silver Mint” as there used to be one located somewhere along that street. But I heard that it is no longer the city’s premiere shopping district as there have been several other that have rose up to challenge including Harajuku and Omotesando where many of designers have their flagship stores in Japan.

i think the plastic models turn out so expensive because they’re still mostly made by hand; a true craft. (there are injection mold based ones now). so its just like cooking… except with petroleum derivatives.

Those are manju molds- more like our hopia rather than mooncakes- theyre sold in regular supermarkets & in those department store basement’ s”supa” as they call it. Mostly manju is made of either red or yellow bean paste.

I have a few of those plastic sushi models given to me by my sushiya san before his shop closed down a few years ago. He loved serving my then 5 y.o. daughter as we came straight from her yochien” Japanese kindergarten” & gawked at her as she finished 5 plates of ebi wasabi nuki ( shrimp with no wasabi) that she would order from him. I had given him a going away gift before leaving for SF for about a year & in return he gave me a set of those plastic model- an ebi, an uni, an ikura, a sake & a maguro. I have them in a laquered obento box ready to be placed up on the wall- it has been ready for the past 4 years !!!

Very informative trip 🙂 I will be going to Japan with my teammates in November, will try to visit the places that you’ve featured. I’ve seen that you took the Shinkansen. Is it really that expensive? haha 😛

Those food models are really fascinating to look at! I remember watching Japan Screen Topics on channel four when I was a kid…even if they are just re-run after re-run of features! hahaha They showed how they made these food replicas…magical! =)

I’m 18 and i found this, because i was looking at pictures of Ginza and Japan in general. I’ve really been wanting to go for a really long time, as an ESL teacher assistant. These pictures just get me way more excited. I want to know more about japan and living there honestly. I just feel stupid and inexperinced

Great post about depachikas in Tokyo! I loved your photos and commentary. The plastic food is also really interesting. I would be tempted to buy a plastic bowl of ramen as well. LOL.

I just did a post on food halls around the world and included two of your photos to illustrate what a depachika looks like. I hope you don’t mind. I of course linked both this post and your blog as sources.

Paul –
It’s impossible to eat badly in Japan since the quality of food is so high. Scroll through my Japan posts and take note of where I ate. Japan addresses are practically non-existent but do an internet search anyway.